Lancashire, a Bermuda-based UK-listed Lloyd’s of London insurer, will return more than $400m (£241m) to shareholders through a special dividend and share buy-backs after a benign year for catastrophe losses.

However, Catlin, a larger rival insurer, said it was unlikely that shareholders would enjoy a wave of pay-outs from the insurance and reinsurance sector because the industry was not awash with vast amounts of surplus capital.